Be aware of any tension in your body… breathe relaxation into this area…

As you breathe in and out be conscious of our Mothering God’s liberating, healing presence within you ….

With St. Julian of Norwich, be aware that God is as really our Mother as God is our father...our tender Mother Jesus …gives us a glimpse of the Godhead and heavenly joy---the inner certainty of eternal bliss…

As you exhale, allow the freeing power of God’s nurturing love to flow out of you … St. Clare of Assisi, who was called the “Footprint of the Mother of God”, understood that her vocation was to be the mother of Jesus Christ, following the example of Mary.

The mystical teaching of spiritual motherhood invites us, women and men, like Mary, to bring forth Christ in the world…

Every disciple, like Mary, is called to do the will of God…to say yes to being a Living Word of God in our world… By doing so each of us becomes a mother of Christ each day…

In Galations 4:19 St. Paul affirms: “My little children with whom I am again in labor until Christ has become incarnate in you…

In a world where many people are frustrated and in spiritual crisis, where there is hatred, abuse and violence, get in touch with the life giving forces and loving power within you to heal, bless and give life…

Reflect on the anxiety that Mary faced as a young, pregnant and unmarried woman…

Be aware that today US teenagers become pregnant at the rate of about one a minute 82% of teenage births are unplanned…

Imagine Mary, a poor person, a symbol of comfort, power and strength for the disinherited, coming back to earth today. What do you think she would say to you? to young pregnant women? What would she say to us about poverty, birth control, injustice, racism, sexism?

The medieval mystic Meister Eckhardt once said that we are all called to be mothers of God… We are called to be Mary… Be aware of ways that you called to birth the Christ Presence in our world…

Living One, you are continually creating the universe,continually giving birth to all of us.We sense the need to do the same,to set ourselves free from a sense of emptiness and barren hopelessness.

The signs of our times are frighteningand often we hear only the confusing sounds of Babel -all the lies and the anguished criesof a wounded earth and its wounded creatures.

Your wisdom invites us to draw on our tradition,as old as the stars,shining through Sarah and Abraham,shining through your prophets in every age and every culture,,shining throughMiriam of Nazareth.If we can blend that enlightening, enlivening traditionwith what we are,we can risk fidelity to a dream:

Filled with your spirit, we can give birth in our dayto your living word,for the sake of hopeenfleshed increativity and confrontation,healing and reconciliation,justice,universal and unconditional love.

Let it be!

Dialogue Homily Questions:

1.How can we give birth to God in the world today?

2.What would Mary say about family planning, poverty, and the oppression of women today?

Presider: Nurturing God, you
became human in Jesus and showed us how to live life fully. You know what it
means to laugh and cry, to walk and talk, to love and be loved. We know that
your mothering presence is always with us. May we, like Mary, rejoice as we
give birth to God within us, and may we give birth to God in everything we say
and do. ALL: Amen.

ALL: Glory to God in the highest, and peace to
God’s people on earth. O loving God, we
worship you, we give you thanks, we praise you for your glory. O Jesus Christ, holy Child of our loving God;
You fill us with
joy in your presence. You who are
with our God, receive our prayer. For
you alone are the Holy One; you alone are Messiah. You alone are the Most High, Jesus Christ;
with the Holy Spirit in the glory of God.
Amen.

LITURGY
OF THE WORD

First Reading:

Second Reading:

Gospel
Acclamation: ALLELUIA! (sung)

Gospel:

Reader:
A reading from the Gospel according to ...
ALL: Glory to you O God.

Reader: The good news of Jesus, the Christ!

ALL: Glory and praise to you, Jesus the Christ!

Dialogue HOMILY

Profession of
Faith: ALL: We believe in God who is creator and nurturer
of all. We believe in Jesus, the Christ, who is our love, our hope, and our
light. We believe in the Holy Spirit, the breath of Wisdom Sophia, who
energizes and guides us to build caring communities and to challenge
injustices. We believe in the communion
of saints our heavenly friends, who support us on life’s journey. We believe in the partnership and equality of
women and men in our church and world.
We believe that all are one in the community of creation. We believe that God who calls us to live
fully, love tenderly, and serve generously.
Amen.

GENERAL
INTERCESSIONS

Presider: For a deeper coming of Christ in our world, let
us pray.

Response: Nurturing God, hear us.

Presider: That we may experience the coming of
God anew in our lives, we pray. R. Presider:
That people who suffer from destitution and despair may experience the
mothering comfort of God we pray. R.

Presider: That the sick and suffering may receive the
nurturing, healing love of God, we pray.
R. Presider:
That those who have died may rest in God's eternal embrace,
we pray. R.

(Other Intentions)

PREPARATION
OF THE GIFTS

Presider: Blessed are you, God of all life, through
your goodness we have bread, wine, all creation, and our own lives to offer.
Through this sacred meal may we become your new creation.

ALL: Blessed be God forever.

Presider: God is with
you. ALL: And also with you.Presider: Lift up your hearts. ALL: We lift them up to God.Presider: Let us give thanks to our God.

EUCHARISTIC
PRAYER

Voice One: Mothering God, you
brought forth all creation from your Life-Giving Womb. O Love of the Ages, we
praise you and leap for joy in your presence.

Voice Two:Holy One of ancient Israel, you revealed
yourself in Mary's womb, in a shining star, in humble shepherds, in a baby
wrapped in swaddling clothes. You embrace us with infinite love in every
situation and relationship. You dwell in the depths of our hearts.

Voice Three:We invite you this day todeepen our awareness of your boundless love as we gather
around the table of abundant life. With grateful hearts, we
proclaim your praise:

ALL: Holy, Holy, Holy, Creator of heaven and earth. All beings are pregnant with your glory.
Hosanna in the Highest. Blessed are you who dwell in all things. Hosanna in the Highest.

Voice Four: Praise to
you, all-giving God, born of Mary. You are the body and blood of woman. We glorify
you, nurturing God for the dawning of the sacred promise of God's Anointed,
fulfilled in Jesus, the Christ.

Voice Five:We celebrate the birth of Jesus, our
newborn Emmanuel , who came to
give us the fullness of life. During this holy season
we share the bread of freedom and lift the cup of salvation.

(raise hands toward bread and wine for Invocation of the Holy Spirit)

All:Come Holy Spirit deepen your Presence
within us and in these gifts of bread and wine, that they may become the Body of
Christ.

Presider: As Jesus gave birth to the New Covenant, he
took bread, gave thanks, broke the bread, and shared it with all those present
saying:

ALL: Take this all
of you and eat it. This is my body.

Presider: Then Jesus took a
cup of wine, blessed you, Loving God,
shared the cup with all those present saying:

ALL: Take this all
of you and drink from the covenant, poured out for you and for everyone. Do this in memory of
me.

Presider: Let us proclaim the sacred presence of our
nurturing God:

ALL: Christ, by your
life, death and rising, you have blessed us with abundance that
will never end.

Second
Invocation of the Holy Spirit:(Place hands on
each other's shoulder)

All:God of all people, You call us "beloved." Give us courage to accept your faith in us and to
live your compassion in the world. You infuse us with Sophia, HolyWisdom, to serve you in the last and
the least.

Voice Six:
As we wait with joyful hearts for the fulfillment of your loving presence in our lives, we remember the prophet,martyrs and saints who have gone before us: Deborah, Isaiah,
Mary of Magdala, Peter, Martha, Bishop Oscar Romero, Ita Ford, Maura Clark, Jean Donovan and all those we remember as heros and
heroines in our church who inspire us today. (Community names mentors whom they want to
remember, living and dead. This list is only partial. Each community needs to
create their own according to custom and culture.)

Voice Seven:God of our dreams, may we give birth to
the Word Made Flesh in us everyday. May we give
birth to the church of our dreams and hopes. May we give birth to a deep
reverence for earth and live in harmony with all creatures on
the earth.

ALL: Through Christ, with Christ, in Christ, all
praise and glory are yours, Holy God, through the
power of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

THE
PRAYER OF JESUS

ALL: Our Father and Mother ...

THE SIGN OF PEACE

Presider: Let us join hands and
hearts and pray for peace in our world as we sing “Peace is flowing like a River”,
love, joy, alleluia…., or other suitable hymn

LITANY FOR THE
BREAKING OF BREAD

ALL: Loving God, You call us to speak truth to
power. We will do so. Loving
God, You call us to live the Gospel of peace and justice. We will do so. Loving God, You call us to be Your presence in
the world. We will do so.

Presider: This is Jesus, Emmanuel,
God with us, loving us forever. All are invited to partake of this sacred
banquet of love. ALL: May we be who we are the Body of Christ.

Presider: Let us share the Body of Christ with the Body
of Christ! ALL: Amen.

COMMUNION

Sing a favorite
Advent or Christmas song such as "Silent Night" or "Away in the
Manger" etc.

Communion:

Birthing
a new creation.

What are we birthing?

Wisdom and justice,

Peace and compassion,

Concern for all God’s
little ones,

For the homeless and the
destitute,

The hungry, and all who
bear the brunt

Of indifference and
oppression.

What are we birthing?

A deep respect for our
planet ,

Its windsong and its
waters,

Its topsoil and its
forests,

And a oneness with the
wilderness

That is image of our
soul.

What are we birthing?

An unbreakable bond in
the Spirit

That binds as one - all
brothers and sisters,

Transcending class,
color, culture,

Religion, race and
gender.

(adapted from A Psalm of Bringing to Birth by Miriam
Therese Winter in WomanWord )

PRAYER
AFTER COMMUNION

Presider: God of new
beginnings,
thank you for nourishing us in your sacrament. May your tender
presence continue to open our hearts to the daily miracles of life that
surround us each day, through Emmanuel, God-with-us.

ALL: Amen.

CONCLUDING
RITE

Presider: Our God is with you.

ALL: and also with you.

BLESSING

(everyone please
extend your hands in mutual blessing)

ALL: May our loving God fill us
with radiant joy. May our liberating God fill us
with deep peace, and may our compassionate
God bless us always with strength to serve the broken and excluded.Amen.

DISMISSAL

Presider: Let us birth Christ anew in our world today. Go
in the peace of Christ. ALL:
Thanks be to God.

This Sunday’s Gospel lesson from John is virtually a repeat
of last Sunday’s Gospel lesson from Mark. We find John the Baptizer out in the
Judean wilderness baptizing people in the Jordan River. Unlike Mark’s gospel, however,
John writes about an interesting conversation between John the Baptizer and
some priests and Levites sent from Jerusalem to question him.

The question they have is simple and direct, “Who are you?”

Why this question? Did they simply want to know his name?
Maybe, but more importantly they wanted to know why he thinks he can keep doing
what he’s doing, namely, offering a ritual cleansing, a way for people to
experience God’s forgiveness in a place other than the Temple in Jerusalem.

So their question is more like, “Who do you think you are?” This is not a polite question. This is
an antagonistic question. As people from my previous home state of Kentucky
might say, “These are fightin’ words!”

John the Baptizer
understood the deeper question, which is “Do
you think you are the Messiah?” Messiah wannabe’s were a dime a dozen in
those days. I’m sure the religious hierarchy in Jerusalem was getting a bit
tired of stamping out Messiah rumors. Unlike the vast majority of the people in
that day, the religious elite in Jerusalem didn’t
want a Messiah to show up and spoil their party!

John knew this
was their real concern, so he says flatly, “I am not the Messiah.” Well then,
who are you? Who do you think you are? What gives you the right to do what you
are doing out here? Do you think you are the reincarnation of Elijah, the
greatest prophet in Israel’s distant past? No, says John. Well then, who are you? We need an answer so we can tell those who sent
us out here to this god-forsaken place.

Quoting Isaiah,
John says, “I am the voice of one crying out in the wilderness, ‘Make straight
our God’s road!’”

Okay, well, that’s a nice piece of scripture, but
seriously, what gives you the right to engage in an unauthorized religious
ritual out here away from the Temple. You realize the Temple authorities are
getting a little upset at how you are stealing some of their flock. If you
aren’t the Messiah or Elijah or some other super-prophet, then who the heck are
you? Why are you baptizing people? Come on now, we need an answer!

John continued to
be a bit coy in his response: “I baptize with water. Among you stands one whom
you do not know, the one who is coming after me; I am not worthy to untie the
thong of his sandal.” Was Jesus standing there listening to all of this?

Here’s why they
are angry: John the Baptizer had started an alternative
religious community, one that thumbed its nose at the recognized
institutional face of religion in that time and place.

Does that sound
familiar?

This raises the
question for those of us in our own alternative religious communities in the 21st
century: Who do we think we are? What
gives us the right to do what we are
doing? That’s a good question, and there’s really only one good answer, an
answer written in the book of Isaiah about six centuries before John the
Baptizer and Jesus appeared on the scene.

Here’s the
answer: “The Spirit of Exalted YHWH is upon me, for YHWH has anointed me.” That’s what gives us the right to do
what we are doing.

Religious groups
all have their various ways of validating a person’s ministry. As Catholics, we
are validated by apostolic succession and the laying on of hands. That is, presumably
our validation goes all the way back to St. Peter. We also go through a vetting
process, acquire a theological education, and undergo psychological tests to
make sure we are of sound mind.

As people in an
alternative Catholic community, we can have the Church’s blessing or we can
excommunicate ourselves by going through an ordination process, but when it
comes right down to it, the only thing that matters is whether or not the spirit rests upon us. The only thing
that matters is whether or not God has anointed
us to do God’s work.

This applies not
just to those of us who wear robes and stoles. It applies to all of us because
all of us are in ministry. My husband, a Protestant minister, informed me that
some congregations in his tradition like to list “all the people” as ministers
of the congregation.

In some ways,
this is the dirty little secret the religious elite in such places as the
Vatican and other religious institutional headquarters don’t want us to know,
that we are all anointed to do God’s
holy work, to bring good news to the oppressed, to bind up the brokenhearted,
to proclaim liberty to the captives, and release to the prisoners. We have all
been called to comfort those who mourn. We are all validated.

What John the
Baptist encountered at the edge of the River Jordan is what we in our own contemporary
alternative religious communities encounter every day: the questions and
suspicions and lack of validation from the headquarters of those who are in
power.

And although we
know deep down in our souls that we have been anointed by God’s spirit to do
what we are doing, perhaps our response to our critics should be as coy as John
the Baptizer’s response: “I baptize with water. Among you stands, however, one
whom you do not know.”

This begs the
question: Do we recognize Jesus when
he’s in a crowd of neglected faceless and nameless people? That is why people
were coming out to John at the River Jordan in the first place. They had been
neglected by the traditional religious institution of that day.

This is a great
text for our alternative religious communities because it reveals that even as
time marches on and history produces so much change, some things never change
at all. There will always be those in power who are suspicious of anyone who
tries to provide an alternative route to God’s peace, love, hope, and joy.

So, can we show
as much or more compassionas those
who enjoy traditional institutional validation? That’s our challenge and our
calling. The Spirit of God is upon us because God has anointed us . . . to enlarge
our circle of compassion to include those who are sometimes neglected by
traditional religious institutions.

This is
especially true as we now find ourselves waste deep in the waters of the
holiday season. It’s very easy to lose sight of our calling to do God’s work
because the jingle bells often muffle the voice of God and the decorating and
gift giving frenzy often obscure the plight of those who may not have the means
to enjoy the festivities.

In other words,
it is very easy to be neglectful during the holidays. There are those who
suffer from loneliness with much more severity than usual at this time of the
year. There are those who can’t be home for Christmas, for whatever reason,
maybe because they are locked up in one of our many prisons.

The neglected,
the unnamed crowds of faceless people are out there, and our alternative
communities have surely been called to serve them, and yet we sometimes get so
wrapped up in our own Christmas joy that we forget those who do not have the
option of joy. Let’s not let that happen this year.

So, who do we
think we are? We are nothing more and nothing less than those on whom the
Spirit of God rests, humble people who have been anointed to bring peace, love,
hope, and joy to others.

It’s a simple
calling, really, but like John the Baptist at the River Jordan, it is a calling
to nourish the dry spirits of those who have journeyed through the wilderness.

And by the way, none of us are worthy enough to untie
the thong of Jesus’ sandals.

Advent is a rich and fertile spiritual
season of expectancy and waiting. To consciously embrace the depth and richness
of this time, I have created a little gift for you. Click here to find Advent
Blessings: An Advent Walk with Mary. Scroll down the Advent page to find
links for additional Advent and Christmas creative and inspirational resources.
Give yourself the gift of reflective, contemplative, and meditative moments to
help you remain centered within the simple blessings that abound this time of
year.

Ink and
Honey Celebrates 2nd Anniversary

As 2014
winds down...I'm reflecting with gratitude. December 26th will mark the two year
anniversary of the release of my historical novel, Ink and Honey,
the winner
of the Illuminations Book Awards' Gold Medal for General Fiction. Ink and
Honey is currently
being read and discussed in the U.S., Canada, U.K., and Australia. I've enjoyed
meeting many book club readers around the country and visiting with them in real
time and through Skype.

There
are currently twenty-three contemporary Sisters of Belle Coeur. In late
September, 2015, the 3rd annual creative and spiritual formation retreat program
will be held for twelve women who feel called to Belle Coeur Sisterhood. The
application process for this sacred journey will begin in January. Details will
be provided at that time.